Tasteful - Levi x OC (Attack On Titan)

Walking Like A Dead Man

As fast as she could, Arden grappled through the trees, propelling herself with all the speed she could muster.

Several minutes earlier, a sickening, high-pitched screech of a Titan filled her ears. It was one she heard before back in Trost when the boulder was used to seal the gate. Eren.

It was him. And if Eren had transformed that only meant that something had gone wrong. Maybe everything had gone wrong. But she wouldn't know because she was too busy chasing after a changeling demon. Deep down she convinced herself that killing the changeling was beneficial to the Scouts, and it was. If it was left alive it would've slaughtered more than just one soldier and could've risked the exposure of the demon world. But at the same time, she couldnt help the guilt she felt for leaving the Scouts. Maybe she could've stopped the Female Titan from escaping. Maybe she could've been able to change the course of time, so nothing horrible would happen that would force Eren to transform.

These were the emotions of a human: regret, guilt, doubt, denial. But right now, Arden couldn't feel that. She had to get back to the Scouts, to Levi and Kain. To know they were safe.

But her conviction wavered as she saw what lay ahead of her. Gunther strung upside down from a tree, neck half severed and barely staying connected to his torso. Eld chewn in half, lying in a pool of blood soaked grass. Oruo's limbs smashed and shattered, limp body laying discarded. Petra crushed face-first against a tree, a trail of blood from where her lifeless body slid down the bark. Bodies. Blood. Limbs. People she knew, people she had the pleasure to talk to, gone. Dead.

And there was nothing she could do.

It was only a few hours ago that they had been very much alive, working together to persuade Eren to trust them, being a close-knit team. Arden didn't know them too well, but she knew they were all incredible people. They had their flaws but made up for it with their insurmountable strengths. Even so, they didn't deserve this. They were good people putting their lives on the line for the good of humanity, following orders despite being left out of the loop. And now they were just... gone.

In the heat of her somber mood, Arden miscalculated one of her grapples, the wire not connecting to anything as it was sent out. She jolted, body swinging widly into an oncoming tree, her cannisters bursting under the force as all the gas escaped the metal cylinders, dissipating into the air. Then she dropped, back and stomach landing with sickening cracks on the oncoming branches below. On one of the branches she felt as her back curved unnaturally into a 'U' shape, all the bones shattering in a cringeworthy chorus of 'snaps'. When she finally reached the ground, her broken and battered body rolled countless times before finally coming to a still.

She didn't even have the energy to groan as she lay there helpless. Every bone in her back and ribs shattered. Her left kneecap bending inwards at an impossible angle and right arm completely twisting in the wrong direction. But despite all of that, the wound from the changeling burnt in writhing agony, disturbed by the multiple falls. Her bones would heal in a few minutes, she knew that. But the puncture wounds that went straight through her stomach and out of her back, wouldn't.

Black dots began to appear at the edge of her vision as she hadn't realised that she had been breathing heavily. She fought as hard as she could to keep her eyes open, but their was no strength left in her body and she quickly succumbed to the darkness.

~•~

What was left of the Scout Regiment was gathered a few hundred feet away from the forest. About 2 hours ago, they had re-entered the giant woods to recalim the bodies, or what was left of their fallen soldiers.